In manufacturing and technology, skilled work is a necessity not a novelty. There has for a long while now been a growing lack of skills within our sector and if it is not reduced quickly the impacts in the future will be difficult to amend. GAMBICA members will discuss what we can do, as GAMBICA but also as individual businesses in order to help reduce this skills gap and work towards a closer linked industry. We will discuss how the ties between industry and academia are essential and the driving forces of our future industry lies within our future workforce.